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29 Nov 2010 20:40

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Politics: George W. Bush invades Facebook; world stops dead in tracks

The two things that define the naughts more than anything else, together at last. Bush openly admitted he was there because he was “trying to sell books.” source

12 Nov 2010 16:03

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Politics: HuffPo: Bush ganked “Decision Points” passages from other books

  • Not to pick on George W. Bush today, what with our whole death penalty thing in the previous post, but The Huffington Post is making some pretty crazy claims that George W. Bush has ripped off quotes and passages from other memoirs from Bush staffers, along with the books Bob Woodward wrote about the Bush presidency. Who knows if that’s true or not, or even if it’s a big deal (we think it’s hard to remember exact quotes with that many years of separation), but some of the quotes are awful close, to the point where it’d be weird for them to be remembered exactly the same way by multiple people. source

10 Nov 2010 21:06

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Culture: George W. Bush’s “Decision Points” does boffo book sales

  • 170,000 number of hardcover copies of “Decision Points” sold on Tuesday, its first day on shelves
  • 50,000 number of electronic copies the book sold; and most of the early sales weren’t pre-orders, either source

08 Nov 2010 16:31

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Politics: Great: George W. Bush has disgusting life anecdote to share

  • Sometimes there are stories that just leave us without words. Sometimes we see something and think of all the ramifications and just can’t fathom the right words to say. Sometimes, we’re just so disturbed by the ramifications of the letters (in this case, “She said to her teenage kid, ‘Here’s the fetus.'”) that we don’t feel like posting anything about a topic and just leaving it alone for the rest of eternity. Then we keep in mind who said them (George W. Bush) and remind ourselves of the heft that those words carry because of the person who said them, and submit them to you. George W. Bush’s mom (you know, former first lady Barbara Bush) showed her son her miscarried fetus. We can’t imagine what ways that screwed him up, even if he says it didn’t. source

06 Nov 2010 13:00

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Politics: George W. Bush on waterboarding: “Damn right.” Damn right.

  • I thought about my meeting with Danny Pearl’s widow, who was pregnant with his son when he was murdered. I thought about the 2,971 people stolen from their families by al Qaeda on 9/11. And I thought about my duty to protect my country from another act of terror. ‘Damn right,’ I said.
  • George W. Bush • Explaining in his coming memoir, “Decision Points,” why he allowed the CIA to waterboard suspects being interrogated, specifically Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. While it’s clear from the quote that he thought the decision through, the off-the-cuffness of his response strikes us as a little, you know, stark. We appreciate Bush caring so much about the lives of Americans that he’s willing to waterboard a 9/11 suspect, but waterboarding is about half a step away from torture. In fact, depending on who you ask, lots of people consider it torture. Also in the book, Bush (who claims to be through with politics) compliments Obama’s political skills while criticizing those of John McCain. He is also keeping his nose out of the whole 2012 race out of respect for Obama. This is impressive restraint that he at times didn’t show in office, by the way. source